There are several different possible causes of GRUB Error 17.
If it occurs when trying to boot Linux in a computer with only one hard disk, it most often means the partition needs a file system check.
You can run a file system check by booting your Live CD and opening Gnome Partition Editor, right-click on the partition, and click 'check', followed by 'confirm', and 'confirm for the second time in the confirmation box that pops up.
When GRUB Error 17 occurs in a computer with more than one hard disk, especially if there are one or more SCSI (SATA) discs and one or more IDE (PATA) discs, it most often means there is some miscommunication between GRUB and the BIOS as to the order the hard disks should be numbered in. (All SCSI disks first, or all IDE discs first).
The simplest way to overcome that is to go into your BIOS and switch the hard drive order around until GRUB is happy.
Otherwise, you can re-install GRUB to a different hard disk and edit some configuration files, that's the traditional way, but it's rather slow and laborious.
GRUB Error 15 used to indicate a typo in the menu.lst file, but recently it has also started to come up when you try to boot an operating system by a menu.lst file containing a uuid command from an older version of GRUB that doesn't yet have the patch for uuid support. If that seems like it could be true, then try re-installing that operating system's GRUB to the partition boot sector and using the chainloader command to it it's own boot loader and let it's own boot loader boot it. Normally that's the best way to set up a multi-boot anyway.
I hope something here will be useful to you.
Regards, Herman
